Collection Guides
- About the Collections
- Archives
- Historical-Biographical Folders
- Manuscripts and Personal Papers
- Images from the Medical Photography Archive
- Picture Catalog
- Portrait Catalog
- Journals
- Short-Title List of Books
- Microforms
- Provenance File
About the Collections
Books and Journals
Search the Upstate Catalog to find records for books and journal titles held in Historical Collections. Also see the short-title lists of books and journals.
The rare book and journal holdings are organized in several subcollections:
Geneva Collection
Monographs and journals about, published by, once owned by, or otherwise pertaining to the earliest predecessor of SUNY Upstate Medical University, Geneva Medical College (1834-1871), its students, alumni, professors, patrons, or administrators. The core of this collection is the original library of Geneva Medical College. Highlights of the Geneva Collection include:
The first separately published edition of the description of Hodgkin’s Disease, On some morbid appearances of the absorbent glands and spleen, printed in London in 1832. The library’s copy is a presentation copy inscribed by Thomas Hodgkin to Anson Coleman, who was professor of botany and medical jurisprudence at Geneva Medical College from 1834 to 1836.
A sixteenth-century work on medical botany, by Valerius Cordus, published in Strasboug in 1561, In hoc volumine continentur Valerii Cordi simesusii annotationes in Pedacii Dioscoridis Anazarbei De medica materia libros V. This work contains almost 300 woodcut illustrations.
John Syngh Dorsey’s Elements of surgery : for the use of students, published in Philadelphia in 1813, is the first systematic textbook on surgery by an American author.
Further information about the Geneva Collection:
Student Textbooks Used at Geneva Medical College
Reconstructed List of Original Holdings of Geneva Medical College Library
Volumes Accessioned by Geneva Medical College Library
Americana
American imprints through 1820.
Rare
Imprints up to 1800 published in places other than the U.S.
Elsner
Materials written by, once owned by, or otherwise associated with Henry Leopold Elsner (1855-1916), prominent Syracuse physician and professor of the Science and Art of Medicine at the Syracuse University College of Medicine.
19th Century
Materials with publication dates between 1801 and 1900 not fitting in the scope of any of the above named collections.
Post-1900
Materials with publication dates 1901-present not fitting into any of the above named collections. The bulk of the materials in this subcollection are 1901-1950, although it also contains more recent imprints.
Journals
Journal holdings number about 7,500 volumes, mostly 19th through early 20th century.
For more information on the history of the library and the book and journal holdings in Historical Collections, see:
History of the Health Sciences Library
Elizabeth Latimer Shrimpton, M.D. (1875-1955) : Unsung Heroine of Medical Librarianship
Archives
Institutional documents, papers, correspondence, reports, publications, and memorabilia of SUNY Upstate Medical University and its predecessors, the former SUNY Health Science Center at Syracuse (1986-1999), the former SUNY Upstate Medical Center (1950-1986), and the former Syracuse University College of Medicine (1871-1950). View the Archives guide.Manuscripts
Papers of former faculty, records of the medical unit formed in Syracuse during World War II, records of former hospitals, and records of a local health services agency. View the Manuscripts guide.Historical and Biographical Subject Files
Biographical and topical files containing ephemeral materials, news clippings, photographs, publications, and reports about people, organizations, and topics pertaining to the history of medicine both generally and locally. View the Historical-Biographical Files index.Photographs and Prints
Nineteenth and twentienth-century photographs and prints of people, places, events in the history of SUNY Upstate and its predecessors schools, the history of medicine in Central New York, and the history of medicine generally. View the Picture Index and Portrait Index. There are also several special groups of photographic holdings:
- Medical Photography Unit negatives from 1929 to 1984
- Photo-archives of the U.S. Army 52nd General Hospital
- Edward C. Hughes lantern slides.
- Arthur D. Ecker lantern slides
- 1885 Collection - photographs of the class and faculty of 1885, and several later classes
- Mary Burnham Collection - photographs and documents about the House and Hospital of the Good Shepherd which belonged to Mary Burnham, the Hospitals House Mother in the 1870s and 1880s.
Circulating and Reference Collections
A circulating collection of books on the history of medicine, as well as a non-circulating collection of reference books for research in the history of medicine, are in open stacks and can be used without library staff assistance anytime the library is open.Leave Us Feedback!